'Tis the Season of Reduced Friction.

What has happened to recent Irish weather?

November: Floods.
December: Frost and snow.
Every month of every other year: Cloudy-rainy-warmish-generic weather.

We've all heard of the savage Irish weather of times gone by from our grandparents, but in my experience, this has been the coldest stretch by far. Sure, we have our occasional night at -3 or -4 degrees, but never has it plummeted to such depths as -10 in my lifetime. The frost and floods of the last few months have got me thinking about weather and what causes it. The main question that I've been asking myself is "Why now?". When approached with this question, most Irish people will stammer out a half-baked hypothesis relating to "weather cycles" and occasionally "oceanic currents", but I don't think that anyone is able to properly explain these unexpected peculiarities in weather. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. It's refreshing to see inch-thick sheets of ice lining the roads and the odd snow shower when all you're used to is the tedium of Hibernian winters. It does start to annoy, though and after numerous weeks of treacherous weather, I've decided to take a closer look at the situation.



I've discovered:

• It has been the coldest December for almost 30 years.
• Most weather stations have had their sunniest December since 2001.
  
• ...and that's that.

It appears that our friends at Met Éireann are just as perplexed at these irregularities as I am. I haven't been able to find anything to explain why the weather has taken such a turn anywhere online. Yeah, the meteorologists know the specifics of the weather conditions themselves, but not why they occur in the first place. What brings high pressure? What caused that cold front? I like to think that the weather is a taster of the disastrous effects of global climate change, which could potentially eradicate human life as we know it. Maybe bringing about these extended periods of extreme weather is mother nature's way of dipping humankind's toe into the bathwater. Hoorah.


That said, who doesn't enjoy a snowball fight?